California autonomous car startup company Udelv announced it is teaming up with Walmart to offer its self-driving vans for deliveries according to a report in VentureBeat The company made the announcement on Tuesday Jan 8 at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show CES in Las Vegas Nevada Udelv also debuted its brand-new delivery vehicle called the Newton which is based on Baidus Apollo open source platform The pilot program with Walmart will happen at stores in Surprise Arizona The company also acquired an investment from the Marubeni Corporation a move that Udelv CEO Daniel Laury said will aid in the companys expansion to other markets in the United States Laury said the companys vans have done more than 1 200 deliveries to date from restaurants florists bakeries auto parts suppliers and others all on public roads in the Bay Area Weve tested and proven our capability to successfully address the delivery market for Americans Laury said Were now ready to work closely with Americas largest retailers to bring convenience and savings to hundreds of thousands of people The Newton which can fit up to 32 customers orders at a time is a level 4 autonomous vehicle Level 4 is known as high automation where the car can operate without human input but only under select conditions defined by factors like road type or location It can drive up to 60 miles an hour on urban and suburban roads and highways It wont go that fast however unless its near a store or a distribution location and not in catchment areas that are bigger than 400 square miles The trial which is set to start next month will initially have human drivers as backups until both companies and regulators deem them approved for a safe removal of the safety driver Americas leading retailers know to stay competitive and continue to provide outstanding customer shopping experiences they need to stay ahead of the curve and lead the market with the adoption of new technology Laury said Walmart is a forward-thinking business that consistently invests in providing value to its customers and our trial builds on this commitment LATEST INSIGHTS Our data and analytics team has developed a number of creative methodologies and frameworks that measure and benchmark the innovation thats reshaping the payments and commerce ecosystem Check out the latest PYMNTS report on PSD2 autonomous cars CES delivery groceries News partnership Retail self-driving Self-Driving Cars Startup Udelv walmart